Description
Book SynopsisDorothea Bleek’s selection of xam narratives from the well-known Bleek and Lloyd Collection were originally published in the journal Bantu Studies during the 1930s. Decades later, Jeremy Hollmann collated and edited these extracts, adding notes on each of the narratives as well as Dorothea Bleek’s ‘sketch ‘of xam grammar. The first edition of his book was published in 2004.
This substantially revised second edition integrates new scholarship on the Bleek and Lloyd archive, and restores previously omitted material. The introduction to each narrative is expanded to contextualise it within the archive as a whole and, where relevant, reference it to the Notebook of which it is a part. The texts are critically reassessed, with additional notes and commentaries, particularly on English translations of the xam language.
Customs and Beliefs of the xam, second edition, is an in-depth, authoritative resource that will be invaluable to scholars, heritage workers and activists.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction to the second edition
- Contributors to Customs and Beliefs of the |xam
- |xam speech
- People in the notebooks
- PART 1 BABOONS
- The baboon narratives
- Baboons and the Early Race
- Special powers of baboons
- Respecting baboons
- Narratives
- PART 2 THE LION
- Lions are people too
- The extraordinary powers of lions
- Respect for lions
- Lions and sorcery
- Narratives
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- PART 3 GAME ANIMALS
- Respecting the game
- The potency of game animals
- Narratives
- PART 4 OMENS, WINDMAKING, CLOUDS
- Relationships with the wind
- Winking
- The wind
- Narratives
- PART 5 RAIN
- ǃkhwɑː and the rain
- The riders of the rain
- ǃkhwɑː and women
- Respecting the rain
- Taking care of the community
- Narratives
- PART 6 RAINMAKING
- Fetching the rain
- Hilltops: places of power
- Angry rainmakers
- Narratives
- PART 7 SORCERORS
- The anatomy of sorcery
- Relations between ǃgiːtǝn and ordinary people
- The ǀnu ǃkˀe, the spirit people
- Narratives
- PART 8 MORE ABOUT SORCERORS AND CHARMS
- The breaking of the string
- The old woman and the chameleon
- Vegetable medicines and charms
- Narratives
- PART 9 SPECIAL SPEECH OF ANIMALS AND MOON
- The Early Race
- Storytelling
- Narratives
- APPENDIX 1: DOROTHEA F. BLEEK’S BUSHMAN GRAMMAR
- Introduction by Tom Güldemann
- ǀxam Bushman Grammar by Dorothea Bleek
- APPENDIX 2: SUMMARY OF THE NARRATIVES
- REFERENCES
- INDEX
